Tim Roberts' black Audi A3 has something called green bandana funk.

It's not slang for a mechanical problem or lingering bad smell, but rather, lime-green graffiti art in bandana patterns that dot the exterior of his otherwise shiny urban sedan. Roberts, a longtime tech executive who previously helped Twitter get off the ground, sometimes forgets the vinyl stickers are there, until they prompt a nearby driver to roll down a window and ask about his artwork. Once he even found a pack of young skateboarders surrounding his car in a parking lot taking pictures with their cell phones.

"It's this totally social experience," Roberts said from the office of Infectious.com in San Francisco's Mission District.

It's hard to predict whether car art will sweep the nation (most likely, not), but Infectious is just one of a new generation of graphic designer collectives that are finding new avenues to sell their artwork--from car graffiti to stationery to sneakers and skateboards.